N.Z. SCHOONER IN CYCLONE

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25091, 24 January 1947, Page 7

N.Z. SCHOONER IN CYCLONE

RADIO SIGNALS CEASE ATTEMPT TO REACH QUEENSLAND SYDNEY, January 23. Radio signals from the 205-ton auxiliary schooner Tagua, en route from the Solomons to New. Zealand, have ceased. She was last reported battling through a cyclone in an attempt to reach Hervey Bay, on the central Queensland coast. On Tuesday she radioed that she was 150 miles east of Sandy Cape, near Hervey Bay, and striking very heavy R.A.A.F. meteordlogical station at Sydney has isued a warning that a cyclone, with southerly gales and high seas, will reach north-eastern New South Wales to-day. The lighthouse keeper near Hervey Bay reported no sign of the Tagua’ and said that conditions were so bad that she had little chance of making the bay. Coastal cargo steamers have been driven into shelter in the area. The Tagua, which has been employed on New Zealand Government charter work in the Pacific thrpughout the war, is on her way back to New Zealand after visiting Guadalcanar, where she loaded a prefabricated aircraft hangar for delivery to New Zealand. Th. master of the schooner is Captain. D. Matheson, of Auckland. The ship is manned by a Cook Islands crew, but Captain Matheson usually carries three other Europeans—a mate, engineer, and wireless operator. On several of his voyages since the war. including the collection of New Zealand war dead from various parts of the Pacific, Captain Matheson was accompanied by his wife, but she is not on board for this present voyage. The Tagua is one of the bestknown vessels in the Pacific. For many isolated communities she was throughout the war years tha only link with

civilisation. She has carried troopsand supplies and her travels have extended from Rabaul in the west to the Cook Islands in the east: from the Gilberts and the Tokelaus in the north to the Auckland Islands in the south. The Tagua, which was in Wellington a few months ago, is owned by the Cook Islands Trading Company.